Haha, no, only some very important terms like "Noir et blanc", "Bouillon", "Guillotine", "Chaise longue" and the word written on the station belong to my modest treasury of French words

JeephotoRegistered: Mar 12, 2013Total Posts: 60Country: United States

Thank you, everyone, for the warm welcome and compliments to my post. This is my favorite thread at FM and I hope to contribute more. There are many beautiful photos done by talented photographers.

There is just "something" about the MF Nikkors; I love to look at and handle them. Everytime I buy one, I'm thinking about the next one to acquire. I guess it never ends.

saphRegistered: Jun 10, 2012Total Posts: 2892Country: United States

uh oh..

1. You are in trouble!
2. Look forward to your pics on this thread!!

Jeephoto wrote:

There is just "something" about the MF Nikkors; I love to look at and handle them. Everytime I buy one, I'm thinking about the next one to acquire. I guess it never ends.

georgmsRegistered: Jan 08, 2009Total Posts: 3732Country: Germany

saph wrote:
George, excellent images all, including the Orient Express shots! Interesting about the stitched shot of the church. Made me think, should I try to do that with 28 3.5 PC images (at least a couple of merged shots when the subject is too tall and I know the top part is going to be fuzzy). I think in that scenario though when the lens is at an angle to the plane of the subject, the distortion may get in the way. Worth trying still.

Of course I still don't have enough RAM on my machine to let PSE create a pano merge, this is only an academic discussion

georgms wrote:
Some shots from this afternoon, jumping on the train-theme:

Molli von georgsfoto auf Flickr
D700 + 180/2.8ED, framing with room for improvement ;-)
Was waiting for the train from the opposite direction, snapped some quick shots from this steam loco too.

Molli von georgsfoto auf Flickr
D700 + 180/2.8ED too, ISO 12800, the light was fading quickly. Colors may be off, but are reflecting the images taken with my eyes and the gray stuff behind ;-)
cropped a bit - still not a shot with a framing to suit my taste

...and now for something completely different:Dorfkirche Hanstorf von georgsfoto auf Flickr
a small village-church, built from the late 13th century on - not the best point of view, but the only view without traffic-signs I could find today
3 vertical and fully upwards shifted shots with the PC 85/2.8D stitched together (panned the camera)

Hi Samy, thanks! I had no wider MF-Nikkor with me today and had to improvise with the PC 85/2.8. Sorry, I don't think the technique I've used today could work for your very tall churches.
Maybe shooting from a greater distance is the key to need less shift (=less fuzzy corners). This (stepping back) is of course a tough task in cramped quarters.
Sometimes I think the best approach to get nice church-photographs is to shoot from a distance with a normal or short telephoto-lens, even if this means that the "basement/foundation" isn't visible.

This one was stitched from two rows, each containing 4 vertical shots. The 4 upper shots were done with full shift upwards, the 4 bottom-images with modest down-shift.

Muenster Bad Doberan, 8-shot pano with the D700 and PC 85/2.8D at f/6.3

georgmsRegistered: Jan 08, 2009Total Posts: 3732Country: Germany

saph wrote:
uh oh..

1. You are in trouble!
2. Look forward to your pics on this thread!!

Jeephoto wrote:

There is just "something" about the MF Nikkors; I love to look at and handle them. Everytime I buy one, I'm thinking about the next one to acquire. I guess it never ends.

georgms wrote:saph wrote:
George, excellent images all, including the Orient Express shots! Interesting about the stitched shot of the church. Made me think, should I try to do that with 28 3.5 PC images (at least a couple of merged shots when the subject is too tall and I know the top part is going to be fuzzy). I think in that scenario though when the lens is at an angle to the plane of the subject, the distortion may get in the way. Worth trying still.

Of course I still don't have enough RAM on my machine to let PSE create a pano merge, this is only an academic discussion

georgms wrote:
Some shots from this afternoon, jumping on the train-theme:

Molli von georgsfoto auf Flickr
D700 + 180/2.8ED, framing with room for improvement ;-)
Was waiting for the train from the opposite direction, snapped some quick shots from this steam loco too.

Molli von georgsfoto auf Flickr
D700 + 180/2.8ED too, ISO 12800, the light was fading quickly. Colors may be off, but are reflecting the images taken with my eyes and the gray stuff behind ;-)
cropped a bit - still not a shot with a framing to suit my taste

...and now for something completely different:Dorfkirche Hanstorf von georgsfoto auf Flickr
a small village-church, built from the late 13th century on - not the best point of view, but the only view without traffic-signs I could find today
3 vertical and fully upwards shifted shots with the PC 85/2.8D stitched together (panned the camera)

Hi Samy, thanks! I had no wider MF-Nikkor with me today and had to improvise with the PC 85/2.8. Sorry, I don't think the technique I've used today could work for your very tall churches.
Maybe shooting from a greater distance is the key to need less shift (=less fuzzy corners). This (stepping back) is of course a tough task in cramped quarters.
Sometimes I think the best approach to get nice church-photographs is to shoot from a distance with a normal or short telephoto-lens, even if this means that the "basement/foundation" isn't visible.

This one was stitched from two rows, each containing 4 vertical shots. The 4 upper shots were done with full shift upwards, the 4 bottom-images with modest down-shift.

Muenster Bad Doberan, 8-shot pano with the D700 and PC 85/2.8D at f/6.3

Well Georg...you usually say that you don't like your framing, but this one's perfect!

Leighton great door series. The house with the wreath really does it for me! The train stations show some really great composition especially the second one
Larry very nice use of the 50-300 monster lens. The blackbird is excellent.
Andy the photos that I have seen lately show that the manual Nikkors really shine on the DF
Chin your train station is first rate and the light on the table is really excellent
Georg love the trains but the little church is the one that I really dig and the stitched image of the church is amazingly good
Cool photo Don I like how the street lights line up

georgmsRegistered: Jan 08, 2009Total Posts: 3732Country: Germany

Thanks, Leighton!
While burning some gas in my neighborhood I came across this view. It's a typical landscape over here, much less mountainous than your hood. Most of the small farms are no real farms anymore, more like a mixture between family homes and small business buildings.

The light was kinda special this afternoon - D700, PC 85/2.8D

georgmsRegistered: Jan 08, 2009Total Posts: 3732Country: Germany

Ray, thank you! I've posted another view of this church a year ago: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/929565/2389#11213319
As you can see, we had proper December-weather last year ;-)
I really like those small churches, many were built with the big stones from the surrounding fields ("fieldstone-churches").

georgms wrote:
Ray, thank you! I've posted another view of this church a year ago: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/929565/2389#11213319
As you can see, we had proper December-weather last year ;-)
I really like those small churches, many were built with the big stones from the surrounding fields ("fieldstone-churches").
I have considered doing a series of the churches in my area and you have just inspired me a lot!
Of course nothing can match the old churches of Europe

I really loved using the D600 at night. It shines at the higher ISO's Here's one using the 35mm 1.4 at 2.8 and ISO 6400

ZicharRegistered: May 13, 2009Total Posts: 3674Country: Singapore

Wow georg, you came back with a bunch of gems

Don, that's amazing - I love how the silhouette just seems to dissolve as mist at the edges. The title is very apt too.

Leighton, I like the first better. Is the depot still in use?

Ray, you're right, that's impressive at iso6400. Did you run any noise reduction on that image? We've come so far for camera technology. Maybe I shouldn't buy anymore stuff...

Foggy14Registered: May 01, 2010Total Posts: 1251Country: United States

georgms wrote:

This one was stitched from two rows, each containing 4 vertical shots. The 4 upper shots were done with full shift upwards, the 4 bottom-images with modest down-shift.

Muenster Bad Doberan, 8-shot pano with the D700 and PC 85/2.8D at f/6.3

Holy smokes, Georg! That's a brilliant photograph.

georgmsRegistered: Jan 08, 2009Total Posts: 3732Country: Germany

Ray, very nice work on the night-shot! It looks really smooth considering the high ISO-setting. The 35/1.4 does show some nice "stars" even at f/2.8 - many other lenses need to be stopped down much more to get the same effect.
Btw, shooting a series of local churches is always a nice exercise - very challenging and rewarding at the same time.

georgms wrote:
Thanks, Leighton!
While burning some gas in my neighborhood I came across this view. It's a typical landscape over here, much less mountainous than your hood. Most of the small farms are no real farms anymore, more like a mixture between family homes and small business buildings.

The light was kinda special this afternoon - D700, PC 85/2.8D

Too bad about the farms. I have a bumper sticker on my vehicle that says "No Farms No Food". I think that about says it all.

Yes, but not to the extent it once was. Amtrak stops there occasionally.

ZicharRegistered: May 13, 2009Total Posts: 3674Country: Singapore

Trains trains trains
Oddly most still carry clamshell-styled phones eschewing the new-gen wide candybar smartphones
Dark maroon and gold trimmings do make for a uniquely luxurious look
Kinda took advantage of the chaos